Dora

Good, well located Italian restaurant in the Clinton Main St. Menu is standard Mediterranean /​Italian fare. It’s BYOB which is great since I can bring my own wine choice, but if you like pre dinner cocktails you are out of luck. Service was pleasant and attentive but not overbearing. I had a crab cake appetizer and lobster ravioli. Both good but nothing exceptional.

I just enjoyed an unrushed dinner with my wife and in-​laws. Perfectly timed service complimented five meals that everyone loved. As a local, I only wish I’d started going here sooner. This will certainly be our local fine Italian spot. Note, they have NJ wines available but they’re BYOB.

I keep wanting to like this place each time I go, but I just haven’t had a great meal here. Everything tends to be bland and the quality is inconsistent… ordered the same meal on a second visit and it was presented entirely different (in a bad way). They do have a great location on Main St. Clinton, with a nice outdoor seating area.

I love Dora’s, from the wait staff to the food to the atmosphere. By the window or outdoors you have a great view of the town. It’s BYOB but there is also a Jersey wine list. I love their fried calamari and bufala burrata salad. The ravioli and pasta primavera are my personal favorites. The scallop special is also great when available. The Tahitian crème brûlée is the best I’ve had.

Excellent food, excellent staff. Pretty much the only place in the area with truly professional wait staff. That’s pretty rare in Hunterdon, and I live here, not being snotty. Oh hell, it’s pretty rare anywhere anymore. Used to be places in Morristown had mature guys from Italy for wait staff, but they’re gone too.
Anyway, a very nice place. The inside is quite small, but they have a fantastic outdoor patio that is the best place in the area in the mild months. Great ravioli, so fresh it melts in your mouth. Don’t skip lunch, their gourmet pizzas are a great deal.
Give them a try.

Great italian food and a very romantic ambience. My coworkers and I really enjoyed this place as the service was amazing and the food quality was great.

I eat there often. The food and service have always been good. In my mind the place in the Clinton area for dinner.

We visited last night for dinner. I had out of town guests and we walked to town. We sat outside on the patio and it was a wonderful atmosphere. The service was a little slow but it was worth the wait when the food came out. All three of us really enjoyed our dinners. Two of us had the chocolate molten cake for desert and it was outstanding. We really had a nice evening and enjoyed our visit.

So this was my second time giving Dora’s a try. My first experience there was pretty bad. We were seated promptly however it took about 10 minutes to be given menus. Once we were given menus it took another 30 minutes for a waiter to even walk by us where we stopped him and asked him to open our bottle of wine. Then about 10 – 15 minutes later we finally had our order taken. During this time our waiter was not busy but rather standing around staring into space. Food was great but it seemed our waiter could careless about us. The other waiters seemed to be more on top of things so I decided to give it another try.
I made a reservation to sit outside. When I arrived with out of town friends I gave them my name and said that I had a 7:30 reservation. He then asked if I could sit inside, I said no that was why I made a reservation for outside. He then informed me it would be 5 minutes. It was 15 minutes and I tried to get someone attention where I was ignored. I then decided to make a call to another Italian restaurant around the corner who told me they would save a table for us to come right over and we could be seated. Much better experience and much better service!
Why make reservations if you are not going to honor them, and then ignore customers. I have never dealt with such rude and really less interested staff. The real shame is that they have good food. However I will NEVER return because the horrible service I have experienced twice now!

Had my daughters baptism here for many reasons. The food tastes fresh and is very good. The location is really cute on Main St and it’s nice to walk around town before and after. And it’s BYOB which is great for party’s or dates. The staff was also very nice and even cut up the cake they let us bring for our daughters special day. I really liked the chicken parm and calamari. Stuffed mushrooms and crab cake sandwich is good too.

Great atmosphere, service, and food! Dora raviolis were unbelievable and we split a salad and had two entrees and a bottle of wine for 60 bucks. Really really great! Highly recommended!

Always a wonderful go-​to for good, Classic Italian food. It is a semi-​upscale atmosphere that always impresses the palate. Great BYOB and outdoor seating area. The food is great from the appetizers to dessert.

Very good — stopping through and saw the other good reviews; decided it was worth a go. It was a good choice. It was a good weather day — sat outside in the courtyard. In the description it says BYOB, but they actually do have some wines — NJ wines only. (Must be some weird local law.) That normally is enough to scare anyone away but I saw that they imported the grapes from Washington State and just made the wine in NJ. Tried one, it was pretty good. Had a couple pasta dishes and a veal dish. The pasta dishes were great, but the veal was just so-​so. Should have realized that when you only have 1 or 2 veal dishes, probably not their strong suit. I’d stick with the pasta dishes in the future.

My favorite place in Clinton. I travel for business so I pretty much dine out every night. At Dora the staff is welcoming and friendly while still being very professional. I love the food. Handmade pasta is just the start. Very fresh ingredients and great sauces. Even the Caesar salad was done with care. No shortcuts here. Highly recommended. Great value with a BYO bottle of wine. Oh, and a great patio in the summer.

Hashtag Dine & Dash.

My wife and I went there for an early dinner with 4 friends this past Saturday evening. A BYOB restaurant with décor that is simple with a homey atmosphere. The wait service was middle of the road, nothing to write home about… yet nothing to complain about. The menu has plenty of the Italian classics, Chicken Parm, Linguini with clam sauce, etc. but seemed to lack some originality. The specials were more appealing with choices like Bronzino, cooked very nicely I might add. Although the menu was pretty basic the food was prepared to our liking. The prices were fair in relation to the portion size and quality of the food. Basically… this is a nice basic little place with good basic food… So I give it a basic 3 stars.

Started off with carpaccio which was fabulous! Also had burrata… So creamy. I had Bronzino special and Nick had lamb shank with mushroom risotto. We both had clean plates. Now cheesecake to split for dessert with decaf cappuccino.

Everything was like a magic touch .
The dinner was terrific, the waiter was very
professional and suggested to us the best salad and pasta
The salad was so healthy and the pasta so delicious.
And the last touch was the Tiramisu, SPLENDID!!!
The Service: PERFECT !!! Everyone smiling and full of energy and passion for the food they serve.
The best food experience in NJ, I love this place full of smiles, energy and great taste…

The fried calamari were soggy and filled with grease. The house made beef ravioli had a rotten meat flavor. I’m guessing they
Were trying to repurpose some spoiled meat from the walk in. The board of health should shut down this abomination. Passionless and disgusting!

I am really feeling a 3.5 here but being a nice girl I will round it up for them. I came here last night with the fam. We had a party of 10, they put four tables together for us which I thought was awesome. They made a big square instead of a rectangle so everyone could talk to each other which really made the night better.
The service was lacking we had to ask for water few times and there didn’t seem to be a bus person at all, we stacked and pushed all the dishes from the appetizers to the middle of out table. They also seemed to rush us a bit, but its a small place and we did have four of their prime tables. Big groups can tend to linger, I get it.
Food was I would say ⁴⁄₅. Some people said their dish was OK and some said amazing. I was quite hungover from my Friday night so I played it safe with some chicken, any other day and I would have been all over anything seafood. Portions were not huge so if you are big eater get a few apps or a salad.
I also hate when restaurants pull this shit… you order your entrée and they say, would you like a soup or salad with that? It seems to happen often when I am with the family we are always a big group and us five kids range from 26 – 18 they know we are not the ones paying and assume we don’t know any better. They trick you into ordering a $ 12 salad thinking its included by the way they present the question.
The menu was limited but not so limited that it did not have something for everyone and its BYOB. They do sell some sort of wine there tho.